Harry Kane must prove himself at Premier League level again next season… can …

Harry Kane is the Premier League's joint-top goalscorer with 19 but was 500/1 to win the Golden Boot at the beginning of the season
Michael Owen emerged in 1997-98 but managed to maintain his form
Kane has captured the imagination since earning his senior England debut
Nobody had ever won Player of the Month three times in a row but Kane went desperately close after winning it in January and February
Olivier Giroud beat him to March despite Kane's five goals that month

Kieran Gill for MailOnline

Published:
09:01 GMT, 5 April 2015

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Updated:
10:28 GMT, 5 April 2015

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On February 14, 1998, new kid on the block Michael Owen scored a hat-trick for Liverpool in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Doing so on the most romantic day of the year was fitting for the division's newest heartthrob.

The expectation surrounding Owen escalated, and the intro for the next day's report in the Liverpool Echo said it all: 'Brazil have Ronaldo. Liverpool, and now England, have Michael Owen.'

Michael Owen was the new kid on the block in the Premier League and scored three at Hillsborough in 1998

Owen celebrates as he scores his hat-trick against Sheffield Wednesday on February 14, 1998

England's young striker Owen makes a run during the 1998 World Cup against Argentina in France

Owen lets rip his shot that saw the Three Lions starlet score against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup

Owen celebrates his goal at France '98 as he went on to deal with the expectation placed on his shoulders

MICHAEL OWEN IN PREMIER LEAGUE

1997-98: 36 appearances, 18 goals

1998-99: 30 appearances, 18 goals

Best ever season total:19

HARRY KANE IN PREMIER LEAGUE

2014-15: 26 appearances, 19 goals

2015-16: TBC

Best ever season total: 19 (and counting)

It was a lot for young shoulders to take, yet four-and-a-half months later he scored that goal against Argentina at France '98. He handled it.

Other England strikers created a similar hype. Wayne Rooney was one, Alan Shearer another.

And now Harry Kane is dividing opinion. Some believe he will be the next name jotted on that prestigious list, others think he will be found out.

This is where Kane can take note of Owen.

It was he who, in 1997-98, scored 18 goals in 36 appearances in the Barclays Premier League.

He kept it up at the 1998 World Cup, and did so the season after, too, scoring 18 goals again but in six fewer Premier League appearances.

He never looked at the opposition as Manchester United, or Arsenal, or even Argentina. 'From one game to the next, I didn't even know who I was playing against – they were just names on a teamsheet, not big reputations, and that innocence served me well,' Owen once said.

Kane has been just as fearless this year. The expectation on him is up there with Owen, and Rooney, and Shearer. Yet he must, at the very least, do it for another season; prove it is not a fluke, or a one-off, before he can even be considered a reason for England supporters to be chipper.

Harry Kane came on as a substitute to make his senior England debut by replacing Wayne Rooney

Kane celebrates scoring for England during his senior debut at Wembley against Luthuania

Kane will try to prove his outstanding Premier League season is not a fluke this year

HARRY KANE BY NUMBERS

3 - no player had ever won Player of the Month three times in a row... but Kane tied with Dennis Bergkamp and Cristiano Ronaldo after winning it in January and February

19 - Kane has matched Owen's best-ever total for a Premier League season

22 - Kane's 19 goals have directly contributed 22 points to Tottenham Hotspur's 56 total

25 - Kane has won the same amount of tackles as Vincent Kompany this season

40 - Kane's 22 goals in 40 appearances in the Premier League beats Owen's 20

500 - Kane was 500/1 to be win the Premier League Golden Boot this season

Even so, that does not mean he shouldn't be celebrated, or that he can't do it.

Kane, after all, has matched Owen's 19 goals in 2001-02 and 2002-03 – the BT Sport co-commentator’s best-ever total in a Premier League season – with eight games to spare.

His 22 goals in his first 40 appearances beats Owen’s 20, too.

Kane's goals have contributed 22 points to Tottenham Hotspur alone, taking them from a losing position to a winning one against Leicester City, Queens Park Rangers, Arsenal, and so on. They’d be 14th without.

Nobody, by the way, had ever won the Player of the Month award three consecutive times.

Dennis Bergkamp won it in August and September, 1997. Cristiano Ronaldo won it in November and December, 2006.

Kane went desperately close to a third following five goals in March, only for Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud to deny him.

Even so, being mentioned in the same breath as Bergkamp and Ronaldo will do the man who was struggling for a place in the Leicester City team just two years ago.

Kane celebrates scoring against Queens Park Rangers for Tottenham in the Premier League at Loftus Road

Kane went desperately close to a third straight Player of the Month award - which has never been done before

KANE VS KOMPANY IN TACKLES

Harry Kane and Vincent Kompany have – coincidentally – played 1,876 minutes each this season, and here's how they compare:

Tackles won:

25 - Kane

25 - Kompany

Tackles lost:

30 - Kane

37 - Kompany

The Tottenham product – 6ft 2in with hair slicked back and a traditional look about him – seems an old-fashioned centre forward.

He was 500/1 at the beginning of the season to win the Premier League Golden Boot, and is not just another also-ran. In Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero, he is rivalling one man who cost Chelsea £32million, and another who won Manchester City the title three years ago.

Analysing his style of play, however, isn't easy.

He isn't known for having pace like Owen, or a cannon of a right foot like Shearer, or dribbling like Aguero, or a bravado like Costa – yet Kane appears a Jack of all trades.

Ten goals with his right foot, five with his left, four with his head – he’s a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of striker, which never hurts.

He’s precise, too, having had the third-most shots on target in the Premier League this year, behind Aguero and Queens Park Rangers striker Charlie Austin.

Kane has had the third-most Premier League shots on target, behind Sergio Aguero and Charlie Austin

Kane appears a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of striker who is a Jack of all trades on the pitch

TOP 10 PLAYERS WITH MOST SHOTS

88 - Sergio Aguero, Manchester City

81 - Graziano Pelle, Southampton

65 - Charlie Austin, Queens Park Rangers

63 - Wilfried Bony, Swansea and Man City

62 - Romelu Lukaku, Everton

61 - Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur

58 - Robin van Persie, Manchester United

58 - Danny Ings, Burnley

57 - Diego Costa, Chelsea

55 - Saido Berahino, West Bromwich Albion

TOP 10 WITH SHOTS ON TARGET

47 - Sergio Aguero, Manchester City

43 - Charlie Austin, Queens Park Rangers

37 - Harry Kane, Tottenham Hotspur

36 - Diego Costa, Chelsea

35 - Romelu Lukaku, Everton

35 - Alexis Sanchez, Arsenal

33 - Wilfried Bony, Manchester City

31 - Robin van Persie, Manchester United

29 - Graziano Pelle, Southampton

28 - Saido Berahino, West Bromwich Albion

Kane's heat maps against Leicester City (left) and Arsenal (right) show he's active in both halves

And don’t forget persistent. Consider the top 20 most distances covered by players during a Premier League match, and Kane features twice (13.01km vs Everton, and 13.12km vs Swansea City). It's no wonder his heat maps (above) show him active from one half to the other.

Even chanelling his inner defender, Kane has made as many tackles (25) as Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany this season in the same amount of minutes (1,876) – and has lost fewer.

Yet Italy proved more difficult to handle than Lithuania, or Leicester, or QPR.

Kane was given a hard time by Giorgio Chiellini – a foul after 19 seconds serving as an unofficial welcome to international football – but he has had that treatment before. Not by the Italian, but by Chelsea captain John Terry.

The Capital One Cup final at Wembley was among his more difficult afternoons, Kane admitted in an exclusive interview with Sportsmail previously, and it will only get harder.

Kane was closely marked by Italy's Giorgio Chiellini in what was a taster of what's to come from defenders

Chiellini often had his arms wrapped around Kane during set pieces in England's friendly with Italy in Turin

Kane was barely given an inch by Chiellini during the international friendly and he can expect it to continue

Defenders catch on quick, and he will be marked intensely, as per Chiellini and Terry’s taster. Can his remarkable form continue for another season, and the one after that, and so on?

Kane must avoid what happened to Michael Ricketts – a player who fell off the radar almost as quickly as he came on to it.

Ricketts hit 12 goals for Bolton Wanderers in his first Premier League season by February 2002 to earn his England debut against Holland that same month, yet the striker did not score for the rest of the season and never reached double figures for a club in the league again.

What Kane doesn't want is to become the answer to a pub quiz question that asks which player scored 25-plus goals in 2014-15, only to never be seen again?

Only he can make sure that doesn’t happen, and it begins with a half-decent 2015-16.